Chie Kawahara Email & Phone Number

Santa Cruz, California, United States

Reading construction plans and quoting windows and doors that embraces architect's vision, works within homeowner's budget, and meets contractor's project schedule is challenging and fulfilling. I find and implement processes to make our team's collaboration and delivery smoother.

Midori Haus is an example of how a 90-year old building can be both beautiful and ultra energy efficient. Keeping the original footprint of the 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom California bungalow originally in 1922, it was retrofitted to Passive House standards with the aim to combine extreme energy efficiency and comfort of Passive House with the aesthetics of Arts and Crafts style. The materials and systems are modeled to a stringent performance standard using PHPP (energy modeling software) that aims to limit the annual energy demand for primary heating and cooling of the house 15 kWh/m2 (1.4kWh/ft2 or 4.75kBtu/ft2) per year. This energy target is about 80% less than what conventional homes use for heating and cooling.As owner and co-project manager, selected and built a team willing to take on this challenging retrofit project. The selection of builder was critical since the general contractor will be responsible for performing stringent air tightness that is 10 times tighter than prevailing construction. Held bidders conference and invited 3 general contractors to submit a fixed bid. Managed the construction agreement creation by working closely with construction attorney to come up with a product that gave the homeowners solid protection that was still fair to the general contractor. Managed $400K budget to ensure the project came in on budget.